Coloring in that Ten Seconds Technique...

I'm usually much better at posting. Only twice in 2 weeks isn't my style. I've been busy here but it's mostly family stuff this week. My Sister is getting married next week and I'm matron of honor so later today, I learn to bustle the dress. But for now, I thought I'd show you some up close pictures of the Ten Seconds Technique that I colored in...

This is a top to the box I created here. But I really wanted to show some more details. The "Secret Treasures" I spelled out was just sanded using a sanding block. ~I've been buying my Lucky Squirrel Sanding blocks through my friend who sells TAC (The Angel Company) but I understand that now you can get them directly through Ten Seconds Studio. YAH!! While these sanding blocks last quite a while, it's always best (IMHO) to use a fresh one with the Pearl or Pink Metal. Especially the Pearl. I've noticed that using a dirty sanding block on it stains the Pearl a bit. So keep your Pearl fresh and use a clean side of the block!

Anyhow, you can see that I just sanded the letters to Secret Treasures. The Leaves and Rose were lightly sanded as well. Once I was done with the leaves, I went over them lightly with some Oregano Alcohol Ink by Ranger.

Here's what I did... I squirted a small amount of Oregano Alcohol Ink out on my Craft Mat. Then I used my H2O pen with the Ranger Blending Solution inside and I picked up some alcohol ink with the tip of the pen and brush it on. If you go lightly, you can prevent the alcohol ink from picking up the metal color (as you may have seen in the Ten Seconds Studio video).

Something to remember... if you are starting to pick up the metal color and you don't want to... STOP! and let it dry. The metal color will dry in the place you left it and then you can resume adding or taking away more alcohol ink.

Here's another tip... the wetter your H2o pen tip is with blending solution the easier it's going to be to remove the metal color. Keep it nice and juicy if you are looking to create a mirror like finish by wiping it away or keep it only slightly damp if you are coloring in with alcohol inks.

You'll notice on the leaves there's still some brown metal and it's got a nice feathery effect. I LOVE how the vein of the leaves stayed brown. This is AWESOME with leaves! Now here's a closer picture of the rose...

By the way, all these designs were using the new Kabukas from Ten Seconds Studio.

The Rose was sanded lightly but, well you can't really get into the inside of the Rose and I didn't want a brown rose on my beautiful box, so I used the H2O Pen filled with Ranger's Blending Solution and really filled the inside of the rose with solution so I could wipe away the brown color. I left whatever brown color stayed in there. You can see under the color the brown still hanging on. I thought it left a little bit of character to to the rose, especially the leaves of the rose.

I first used Wild Plum alcohol ink on my rose and decided it wasn't the right choice, so I filled in the middle with some Red Pepper Alcohol ink and blended it with the Wild Plum. I really like the results. A little 3 dimensional flower! All I need now was to add some scent. (Don't worry, I didn't!).

So while you are wiating for those Alcohol Ink pens to ship to your Local Scrapbook/Paper Arts Store, give this a try with your handy dandy H2O pen.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and I have a tutorial for all of you! A beautiful Valentine's Card, with some metal of course!